Literary Birthday – 19 January – Nina Bawden

A writer’s work may be a coded autobiography, but only a very close friend could decipher it.

I grew up on a suburban street with lace curtains and dull neighbours, so I made up stories to tell my friend, in which they became serial killers and burglars.

I like writing for children. It seems to me that most people underestimate their understanding and the strength of their feelings and in my books for them I try to put this right.

All writers are liars. They twist events to suit themselves. They make use of their own tragedies to make a better story… They are terrible people.

One good reason for writing novels based on your life is that you have something to read in old age when you’ve forgotten what happened.

All writers are thieves; theft is a necessary tool of the trade.

Nina Bawden was an English novelist and children’s writer. She was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1987 for Circles of Deceit, and the Lost Man Booker Prize in 2010. Her novels include Carrie’s War, Peppermint Pig, and The Witch’s Daughter.